Salavat Yulaev wins 3x3 title

It couldn’t have been closer – but Salavat Yulaev got the job done to win the inaugural KHL 3x3 Championship.

Saturday’s gold-medal game was a tense affair between the Green Derby rivals. Salavat earned its place with a 4-2 semi-final win over Traktor, before Ak Bars defeated Dinamo Minsk 5-2. That set up a final showdown between the teams that finished first and second in the Superfinal group stage.

In a competition noted for its free-scoring games, these two teams took a different approach in the Superfinal. Rather than playing all-out attack, both were happy to wait for an error from the opposition, confident that they could turn even a half-chance into a goal.

As a result, we saw a goalless first period – although Ak Bars spurned two penalty shots – while Ilya Krikunov had a couple of great chances for Ufa.

In the second, Ildus Suleimanov put Salavat Yulaev in front, winning and converting a penalty shot moments after a game-changing save from Yury Sirotkin at the other end. And the lead lasted until the intermission as Ak Bars struggled to create chances against a well-drilled defense.

But the final frame brought a tying goal when Daniil Chetverikov’s feed set up Vladislav Shlyakhtov for a vital goal. That took the final to a shoot-out. Both goalies pulled off big saves, but Krikunov found the golden shot to give Salavat Yulaev the title.

After Krikunov’s effort, Sirotkin still had one save to make. “I was looking down,” he said. “I saw that Krikunov scored and I realized I needed just one more save. I put everything into it, I didn’t let their skater put me on the ice, I covered the five-hole and when the puck dropped in front of me, I knew that it was done, we’d won it!

“To be honest, it’s all a bit much right now. I can’t quite believe what we’ve done, but the emotions will hit later. It’s a great joy, I’m so happy I could join the team and help to win the cup.”

Sirotkin was also named tournament MVP and Salavat Yulaev head coach Ruslan Suleimanov highlighted the contributions of the goalie and team captain Nikita Shchitov. “Shchitov played an irreplaceable part: a leader on and off the ice. And it’s no accident that Sirotkin was named MVP.”

The coach added that the path to glory was not always smooth. “There were ups and downs, good and bad games,” he said. “We won three Supergames, but also some painful and serious losses.

“Nonetheless, the guys came together when they needed to and we did a great job in the Superfinal.”

Traktor bags bronze

Earlier on Saturday, Traktor defeated Dinamo Minsk 7-3 to take bronze. The Belarusians made a good start with Daniil Lipsky opening the scoring early on. And there should have been more, but Vitaly Pinchuk missed three penalty shots.

That allowed Traktor back into the game, but it wasn’t until the second stanza that Chelyabinsk took control. Four goals in three-and-a-half minutes proved decisive: Maxim Askarov tied the scores, then Artyom Borodkin, Kirill Kadyshev and Artyom Udot took the game away from Dinamo. Sergei Kuznetsov pulled one back for Minsk, but Traktor quickly extended its lead and secured the hardware.

“We had it a bit easier than Dinamo,” Askarov said. “After the [semi-final] we were a bit down, but we had an hour to talk it over and recover. We were already in the mood to play again, and Minsk didn’t have that same feeling.

“I think we did well. We got together and finished the tournament on a high.”